Tales from a country cottage

Lemon_Tree

hope you enjoy your AL. Ig is right there are peaks and troughs on this journey, it does get easier it's just that you both have to learn new habits.

ani*fan

Well I'm feeling a bit rough today. Sore throat, sore head, very, very tired. I'm trying to take it easy but panicky about uni and also the debt. OH went out hours ago to visit a pal and all I kept thinking was 'that's £4 in petrol'. It's getting too much!

I haven't added up our total recently (at least in a couple of weeks) so I'll wait until the CC payments have gone through then see where we stand.

The food situation is ok. You don't realise how many meals you can make out of your store cupbard until you're forced into trying. Also felt my clothes slightly loose today and stepped on the scales. Have effortlessly lost 5lbs by eating smaller portions and reducing the junk food. Yey. :T I guess that's progress.

I haven't had any more ideas for quickly making cash this month. I keep clicking on mystery shops to find they've already been taken. It can get a bit like that in the lead up to christmas. Plus I think my local branches of Santander must know I'm a mystery shopper. If they don't, they're daft. It's the only time I go in there. (And how I love it when they get something wrong or are rude and I get to tell on them. )

Think I'll read my diary through from the start and try to get some inspiration.

Lemon_Tree

hold in there! it's not an easy road to travel but it's one worth the effort. There's a lot of diaries out there where you can find some inspiration, if you want a laugh then have a look at Pippilongstocking's diaries if you haven't already found them.
To be honest i feel that we all seem to be in a lull at the moment, it's probably because we can see the end of the year is almost with us and are judging our progress too harshly.

Igamogam

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

hold in there! it's not an easy road to travel but it's one worth the effort. There's a lot of diaries out there where you can find some inspiration, if you want a laugh then have a look at Pippilongstocking's diaries if you haven't already found them.
To be honest i feel that we all seem to be in a lull at the moment, it's probably because we can see the end of the year is almost with us and are judging our progress too harshly.

Think its something to do with the diminishing light levels - and you are well ahead of us here. Hope the throat etc feels better soon - well done on weight loss!

ani*fan

Thanks for the support you lovely people. I haven't found pippilongstocking's diary so I'll go have a look at that.

I spent way too much at uni yesterday. I bought 3 coffees at the cost of £1.20 each then bought some food for the journey home at the cost of a fiver. I was sitting fretting on the way home cos that wasn't budgeted for then when I got home, OH had found £20 in a pocket while doing the laundry! Yey! Crisis averted for another day.

My throat is feeling much better thank you. I've been cheating with cigarettes but not smoking nearly as much as I have been previously so that's good.

Not much planned for today and OH is going out later so maybe I'll get some study done and clean this place up a bit. Exciting stuff.

Hope all is well with everyone else.

Igamogam

I love finding a 'lost' fiver/tenner/twenty - makes you feel :j And dont you just spend it about 5 times over :rotfl:

ani*fan

Just added up total debt today and discovered it's standing at £13885.84.

That's £343.64 paid off in a month and a half since I restarted my diary.

Progress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:j

I'm away to update my signature. Happy day.

ani*fan

I have a bit of financial juggling to do today. There is £23 in the bank. There is £27 in my purse. Bills of roughly £42 are due out of the account tomorrow so I need to pay some money in.

I need petrol today but not sure how much. I need travel fare for my course on Tuesday, £13.30.

I am waiting for expenses to be paid into my bank account. They may arrive tomorrow or Monday, but it could also be another week. I need them to pay the remaining bills due out of my account before the end of the month.

My dilemma is this. Should I take cash out on a credit card, or risk this plan falling to bits if my expenses don't arrive? If my expenses get paid then everything is fine. As I'm on AL I can't access my work email where they usually let me know what date it will be paid.

I can't bear the suspense. It is now 12 days until the next lump of cash is going into my account. There are bills due before then. And I need to buy petrol.

Anyway, I'm going to the bank to pay in some pennies. Back soon.

Igamogam

ani*fan wrote: »

I have a bit of financial juggling to do today. There is £23 in the bank. There is £27 in my purse. Bills of roughly £42 are due out of the account tomorrow so I need to pay some money in.

I need petrol today but not sure how much. I need travel fare for my course on Tuesday, £13.30.

I am waiting for expenses to be paid into my bank account. They may arrive tomorrow or Monday, but it could also be another week. I need them to pay the remaining bills due out of my account before the end of the month.

My dilemma is this. Should I take cash out on a credit card, or risk this plan falling to bits if my expenses don't arrive? If my expenses get paid then everything is fine. As I'm on AL I can't access my work email where they usually let me know what date it will be paid.

I can't bear the suspense. It is now 12 days until the next lump of cash is going into my account. There are bills due before then. And I need to buy petrol.

Anyway, I'm going to the bank to pay in some pennies. Back soon.

ani*fan wrote: »

Just added up total debt today and discovered it's standing at £13885.84.

That's £343.64 paid off in a month and a half since I restarted my diary.

Progress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:j

I'm away to update my signature. Happy day.

Very well done and how did you sort out your dilemma??

ani*fan

The dilemma was sorted cos my expenses arrived today. YEY!!!:j

There is enough money to pay the bills. I have 50 miles of petrol in the car. I have £10 for my uni travel expenses, and £15 to buy OH a pouch of tobacco. MiL has a pouch for OH too so that can be picked up at some point.

I am determined to make it through this month without getting a charge from a bank, credit card or anyone else.

The bad news is that the credit cards are totally maxed out. I couldn't use them or take any money out on them even if I wanted to. I didn't realise it was as bad as this but it is and means I've been using them and conveniently 'forgetting' (more like denial!). We are now in a position where we have no credit whatsoever, so when the money is gone, that's it.

I'm trying to remember that £343.64 has been paid off the debt. That really is excellent progress and means I'm doing something right. Under £14k is a big achievement for me.

I've also been pondering putting money away for car expenses and unexpected bills. However, I don't want to have money stashed away while the credit cards are costing me huge amounts to service. So the new plan is that I will save money on the credit cards. They are next to get hit in the debt busting snowball anyway. I'm concerned it will not get me out of the habit of using them but I do think I can be disciplined to only use them for car emergencies. They're the only big unexpected bill I get, really. This means NOT using them for tobacco, food, electricity, anything at all like that. Just for big scary car bills.

I was reading somewhere on here about DFW people having to take a risk and paying off debt and just hoping nothing terrible happens to cost them money. I actually agree with that. I would love to learn how to budget properly, to have secret stashes of cash for road tax, dentist appts, things like that. But the reality is I don't want that cash sitting about when there is debt to be paid. I'd rather put it to a credit card and if I need to use it again, so be it. But if I don't, the debt goes down.

Does this make sense? Or do you all think I'm mad?

The other thing is that my overdraft is so small I would love to pay that debt next. However, it's much less interest than the Capital one cards. Should I pay that one first to try and keep on good terms with my bank? It costs around £1.50 per month.

Hmmnn...credit cards I think.